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Saturday, May 9, 2009

Review: Demgoroth - Besessen (2009)

Demgoroth is a five-piece Blackened Death Metal band from the southern German state of Bavaria. Formed in 2006 as a straightforward Black Metal outfit, over time the band members approached their songwriting with a bit more flexibility by incorporating elements from other styles of Heavy Metal. After dealing with considerable line-up instability, Demgoroth finally headed into the studio to record their debut Besessen.

The band's initial Black Metal stylings are quite apparent on "Toter Glaube", the first song after the obligatory intro track. Harsh tremolo riffs from guitarists Timo and Bjornn do take on a sinister melody at times, though the song is primarily driven at a hasty clip by drummer Florian's cacophonous blast beats. Frontman Andi belches forth some standard Death Metal vocals, occasionally punctuating them with demonic shrieks. All-in-all a pretty nondescript Black Metal track.

Demgoroth switches things up a bit beginning with the title track. The song begins with a raw, dark guitar lead and familiar blast beats before opening up with some groovy riffs that have an ever-so-slight punk vibe to them. Andi's vocals start off as raging Blackish snarls, but as the song progresses he mixes in some fairly deep Death Metal growls. The song contains numerous tempo shifts and is a remarkable display of Demgoroth's collective songwriting talent. "Whare Macht", my favorite track on the album, reins in the tempo changes a bit while adding riffs that alternate between atmospheric and old-school Thrashy. The most catchy track on Besessen is "Blutwinde", with some pretty frantic riffs and memorable leads. Buried deep in the mix for most of the album is Jule's bass, but her contributions eek to the surface on this song and add further depth to Demgoroth's sound. It would be nice to hear her bass a little more often, but I'm sure that owes more to production quality than anything deliberate.

Besessen is indeed a rough album production-wise, but leeway has to be given in light of the fact that this is a debut release. In spite of the production, it's easy to hear that the band has successfully come up with interesting music that blends together some fairly compatible styles of Heavy Metal. If you're into extreme metal that pays homage to the meaty riffs of yore, give Demgoroth a listen.